Unbreakable
by Lynn Saunders
Summary: I remember you...


Title: Unbreakable  
Author: Lynn Saunders  
Rating: PG-13 for a tiny bit of violence  
Classification: M/S USTish, post-ep for Two Fathers/One Son  
Spoilers: Two Fathers/One Son and general knowledge leading   
up to that point  
Summary: I remember you.  
Feedback: Adored, re-read, printed out, and immortalized   
in a quality binder at lynnsaundersfanfichotmail.com.  
Website: Archive freely, but please drop me a line   
to let me know.  
Date Completed: 6.3.2004  
Disclaimer: Oops, not mine. Sorry.  
  
Carol and Sallie rock! They're the 'awesomest' beta team   
around.  
  
This is a little different from my usual, but I couldn't   
let it go. Hey, if I don't do different things, I won't   
continue to improve, right? That's my theory, anyway.  
  
- - -  
  
Unbreakable  
by Lynn Saunders  
  
The dream begins in the same way each night, yet never ends.   
She wakes sweat-damp and disoriented, mumbling a   
half-remembered response as she tugs at the blankets and   
turns her face into the pillows.  
  
In the morning, she'll shower and brush out her hair, line   
her eyes and button her black wool jacket, wondering why   
her sister's laugh echoes through her mind.  
  
- - -  
  
The night is thick and hot, salt-spiced air flooding   
through the open windows, dampening the sheets twisted at the   
foot of the iron-framed double bed. They can't sleep. Waiting   
is not an option for the young. They giggle, giddy with the   
feel of summertime and sleeplessness.  
  
"Come on, Dana." Missy slips from the bed, bare feet soundless   
against the cool hardwood floor. She creeps to the window,   
climbing out into the sticky sweetness of the midnight air.   
She turns to find her sister in the low light, squinting   
through the hot sea breeze. "Dana," she whispers, "I'm not   
going without you."   
  
"You shouldn't be going at all," Dana counters, conscious as   
always of her parents' presence in the adjoining room. "We   
aren't supposed to."  
  
Ever cautious and rule-abiding, Dana has experienced far too   
few youthful indiscretions. Missy wants to run free and wild   
through the tropical night, but even more than that, she wants   
to see her sister let go. Dana needs to feel the sand beneath   
her toes, to see the night-cloaked beach in midsummer, waves   
shimmering beneath the stars.  
  
And Missy knows just which buttons to push. "You don't have   
to be afraid. It's not a scary thing."  
  
- - -  
  
She is deeply afraid, for she is facing her most secret fear.   
  
After the winter, the loneliness and cold of hospital corridors,   
they have come to a crossroads. Surely, she thinks, it is   
inevitable. They will take the same path. And just as soon as   
she begins to believe, another road takes shape, looming dark   
and twisted on the horizon.  
  
She fought with Mulder.  
  
The door falls shut behind her with a dull thud. She feels   
empty, brittle as rain-rusted metal. The streets smell of   
sulfur. The sewer grates steam, sending thick, white flumes   
swirling about her boot heels, yet nothing registers. She tried   
to leave last summer, and he tried to stop her, fought to get   
her back, went to the end of the Earth for her. This time, she   
made it out of the building, and he didn't even put up a fight.   
She reaches her car before silent, stubborn tears begin to fall.   
  
She doesn't see Mulder slam his fist violently against the   
Gunmen's table top. She doesn't see him sigh, head bowed.   
  
Oh, God, she thinks. He doesn't want this, doesn't want her,   
not in the way she has begun to want him.  
  
Yet, later, when she receives the information, she can't stop   
herself from picking up the phone. They can reach the Potomac   
yards in time, of this she is sure. Because it is personal,   
because she does love him, she simply can't walk away.  
  
- - -  
  
"I am not afraid," Dana says as emphatically as possible without   
breaking her whisper.  
  
"Then why are you still inside?" Missy disappears into the   
darkness, knowing Dana will follow.   
  
Along the balcony, past their parents' window, over the railing,   
down the fat column on the southeastern side of the rental, and   
out onto the glittering sand. Freedom, together running.  
  
- - -   
  
Running, she can't stop running. Her lungs and calf muscles   
tingle as she dashes through the darkness, heels a clattering   
echo against the pavement. She rounds the corner into a blind   
alley, palming her Smith & Wesson, the steel cool against her   
fingers. A crunch of aluminum, a trash can topples, and she   
spots her target, clambering onto a fire escape ladder, his   
weapon a flash of silver, half-hidden in the waistband of his   
jeans.  
  
She thinks he'll make it and briefly scans the structure for   
an escape route, but the suspect is winded from his adrenaline-  
fueled run. He drops to the ground, rolling and crouching low   
against the back wall.   
  
"I'm a Federal Agent," she hears herself shout. "I'm armed.   
Turn and put your hands against the wall!"  
  
He looks up, startled.   
  
"Hands against the wall!" she yells again, but she can see   
that it's no use. He is young, inexperienced and panic-stricken.   
She knows what is going to happen before he even reaches for   
the gun.  
  
She fires, the bullet ripping through his right thigh. He   
is thrown onto his stomach and handcuffed in seconds. Only   
then does she allow herself to breathe.  
  
Mulder is perched on the tailgate of an ambulance, barely   
maintaining his patience as an EMT cleans the gash on his   
forehead. His shirt is open, and he looks relieved to see   
her. She brushes his collar aside to inspect the ugly   
purple bruise over his heart.   
  
"You're lucky you were wearing your vest... more than lucky."   
  
Mulder grimaces. "Gotta love that Kevlar. I'm just glad   
he wasn't aiming for my head."  
  
She glares at him, unamused. She wants to cry, to scream   
at him: "That's not funny Mulder, damn you!" She settles   
for brushing the hair from his forehead, the tension and   
fear of recent weeks stretching wire-thin, sharp and taut   
between them.   
  
They do not speak.  
  
- - -  
  
The waves crash and churn against the pale, moon-bleached sand   
as they stroll the shoreline, breathing in the heady sea air.   
Ahead, the dunes glow orange-gold. Embers hiss and pop, sending   
sparks dancing above like overzealous neon fireflies. The fire   
burns not as a source of warmth, though the wind is brisk near   
the water, but as an invitation. Other unruly adolescents have   
escaped their respective beds tonight, enchanted by the silver   
moon. They gather about the fire with marshmallows burning on   
unraveled wire coat hangers, sharing stories and cigarettes,   
high on missed curfews and broken rules.  
  
The sisters sit in companionable silence, away from the warmth   
of the fire. Dana digs her toes into the sand, covering and   
uncovering, leaning her head against Missy's shoulder.   
  
"You should let go, Dana. Don't think so much."  
  
- - -  
  
"Don't think, Scully. Don't talk. Just listen," he says   
in his rushed, single-minded manner, all in one breath. He has   
wandered through the grimy streets, through the storm raging   
outside, to stand here looming in her doorway, dangerous in   
his black leather jacket. His hair is slicked back, dripping   
rainwater down his collar.  
  
"I don't know where things started going wrong or why we've been   
acting this way when we're together... but I'm not leaving   
until we fix it."  
  
She sighs, wondering when this man became so important to her.  
He can be arrogant and self-absorbed. He drives too fast and   
explains too little, steals her coffee and leaves seed shells   
all over the office, yet she has never cared for anyone more.   
  
"Come in, Mulder."  
  
A half hour later, his soaked jacket drips dry in her bathroom   
while two mugs of chamomile steam on her coffee table. She   
watches as he towels his rain-damp hair, admiring the sleepy   
eyes beneath.   
  
"I've missed you," he says.  
  
She smiles.  
  
They won't speak of their partnership at length or discuss   
the future. Each knows, deep down, they are nothing without   
the other. Instead, they watch a bad movie and doze off, her   
head on his shoulder.  
  
Before she met Mulder, she never knew that friendship could be   
unbreakable or that love could burn.  
  
- - -  
  
There is a boy, a young man. He is silent, sitting alone,   
yet his eyes offer far more heat than the flames burning   
bright in her peripheral vision. Talk to him, she thinks, or   
maybe Missy whispers it, and Dana finds herself standing   
in front of him, extending a hand. She thinks she's inviting   
him to join her, to stand, but he pulls her near and she   
follows, sitting with him in the warm sand.   
  
His face seems familiar. Perhaps she's met him in passing, in   
one of the beachfront shops by day. She thinks he'd buy a   
snow cone at the squat, wooden popsicle stand. She almost   
remembers that he ordered lime, almost imagines that it stained   
his lips and fingers a brilliant shade of green.  
  
He is looking at her now, into her eyes, and she's never felt   
like this before, like having a conversation without saying   
a word, like meeting her other half. She's never been kissed   
before either, she realizes. Not like this. His lips are   
soft, tasting of sea salt and exhilaration.   
  
And, oh, she thinks. Oh. I remember you.  
  
- - -  
  
lynnsaundersfanfichotmail.com 


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